Martin B-26 Marauder: The Wingless Wonder was the name of a variant of Avalon Hill's B-17: Queen of the Skies solitaire boardgame. A draft of B-26 was available for play testing which used the B-17: Queen of the Skies rules and B-17 was needed to play. Everything has changed since then, and B-26: The Marauder Strikes! has completly new mechanics and is a stand alone game. It is a solitaire game set on board a Martin B-26 Marauder medium bomber during World War Two in the European Theater of Opearations from July 1943 until the end of the war in May 1945.

B-26: The Marauder Strikes! is a big game in that there are many target lists, rules, mission maps and details which are not found in B-17: Queen of the Skies or B-29 Superfortress: Bombers over Japan. For example, the Damage Tables are more detailed than the earlier games and the combat system is similar, but completely new. The Target Lists include a large selection of targets attacked by B-26s from July 1943 until the end of the war in May 1945 and are placed on 13 maps (movement boards) which are different depending on where your base is located, from England to the Netherlands. Different models of the B-26 is also included from the early B-26 in 1941 until the B-26G which entered combat in October 1944. The earlier models are not used in the European Theater of Operations (the ETO) in which B-26: The Marauder Strikes! is set, but will be used in 22nd Bomb Group: Marauders from Australia, an add-on variant set in the Pacific in the war against Japan in New Guinea.

The rules in this Flight Manual try to reflect the twin engined B-26 Marauder and situations and events which the crews saw on their missions and historical accuracy has been an important guideline during the development of this game.

Players familiar with B-17: Queen of the Skies or B-29 Superfortress: Bombers over Japan recognize the mechanics used in B-26. One or more 6-sided dice are rolled on tables to plan the mission, to determine if enemy fighters appear, to hit with machine gun fire and to determine damage and wounds and much more. B-26 is as easy to play as B-17 with its basic system which is similar to the mechanics in B-17: Queen of the Skies. Players who have flown missions in B-17 may find that B-26 is similar, but more detailed and there are ideas included in B-26 which can be found in the B-17: Queen of the Skies community. If you add the advanced and optional guidelines you will find B-26 to become deep, detailed and complex, but still does not stray far from the simple mechanics of the basic system. You will also find yourself in situations where you have to make a decision.

The Core Game Flight Manual will be used to play the A-20 Havoc, A-26 Invader and B-25 Mitchell add-ons.

You can begin your campaign flying missions from bases in England or jump in later in the war when the B-26 groups had moved to the continent and you will find Mission Maps with your station either in England, France, Belgium or the Netherlands depending on when you fly your missions. Put together a crew, name your B-26 and fly missions over France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxemburg, Germany, Austria and Chechoslovakia!

Low-Level MissionsPosted by Magnus Kimura 2015-02-23 16:49:19To miss a target from low-level is almost impossible? At least if you believe the modifiers I have on the to-hit tables.

As it is now you don't have individual targets. For example, if your target is an airfield, you will bomb all targets there in an "area bombing" type of attack. The landing strip, hangars, gun positions and planes, and everything you can find on an airfield. Individual targets must be more difficut to hit, but I don't know a good way to decide what your target will be and how that will affect your group's results.

To attack a single target, a tank or ship for instance, you can dive bomb, glide bomb, skip bomb or drop a torpedo and you will know if you hit it or not and what the damage is.

Para Frags/Demos will increase your chance of hitting the target even further.

Rockets will destroy targets on the ground, but how many or how much in %? If you follow with bombs will you have a negative modifier on the to-hit table or a positive modifier on the accuracy table?

And if you strafe with machine guns, how will that affect your bomb run and the result?

I have been thinking about using TZ-4a for both medium/high and low-level missions, but I am also working on a separate to-hit for low-level missions.

The 1308th Bombardment Squadron (M) of the 646th Bombardment Group is practicing low-level bombing missions over the country side somewhere in England in April 1943 flying their B-26s at tree top level...

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FACT: The 322nd Bomb Group was the first B-26 group in England. The B-26 was intended to fly low-level missions at first and the crews trained for this type of missions and the group flew their first mission on May 14, 1943 to a power plant in Ijmuiden, the Netherlands. Three days later another mission was flown to the same area and all 10 B-26 were shot down. One had returned early.